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Marchigüe fire, January 2017 Marchigüe, Pumanque, Pichilemu

Out · last detection 26 Jan 2017, 05:31 UTC

The fire started on 18 January 2017 in Marchigüe, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 39,771 hectares from heat detections, spread across 5 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Región del Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins since 2016 (of 28 with a page). Number 4 in Chile in 2017, of 56.

Burnt area
39,771ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
18 Jan 2017 – 26 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
5
communes
Started on
18 Jan
2017
Heat detections
2,283
in a single hotspot: 1,667 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
87.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jan26 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

181920212223242526

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

32°high
56km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 4 Feb.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 580 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Marchigüe where it started
    17,052 ha reached on 18 Jan
    26 %
  2. Pumanque
    12,679 ha reached on 18 Jan
    29 %
  3. Pichilemu
    6,712 ha reached on 18 Jan
    9.4 %
  4. Peralillo
    2,892 ha reached on 18 Jan
    10 %
  5. Paredones
    546 ha reached on 24 Jan
    1.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
18 Jan 28.7 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Jan 30.7 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Jan 30.9 °C 26 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Jan 29.4 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Jan 25.8 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
23 Jan 26.0 °C 33 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
24 Jan 28.6 °C 31 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Jan 32.2 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
26 Jan 29.0 °C 41 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
27 Jan after 28.1 °C 50 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
28 Jan after 28.3 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
29 Jan after 27.9 °C 40 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
30 Jan after 27.5 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
31 Jan after 26.3 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
1 Feb after 25.8 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
2 Feb after 20.1 °C 46 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
3 Feb after 20.7 °C 40 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
4 Feb after 22.0 °C 44 % 44 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 15

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 11 Jan 2017
After · 2 Feb 2017

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 2,283Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Chile ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Marchigüe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 January 2017 and 26 January 2017: 9 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 39,771 hectares (397.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 5 municipalities: Marchigüe (17,052 ha, 26 %); Pumanque (12,679 ha, 29 %); Pichilemu (6,712 ha, 9.4 %); Peralillo (2,892 ha, 10 %); Paredones (546 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Chile (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 130 (CONAF) · 132

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 130 (CONAF) · 132.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.